This podcast focuses on the report, Skill-Based Sorting in the Era of College-Prep for All: Costs and Benefits, which was released in March 2014. For this report, Consortium researchers studied two policies, instituted by the Chicago Public Schools, which provided a natural experiment in skill-based sorting with a common curriculum. One of these policies reduced skill-based sorting, while the other increased it.

Report authors Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Director of UChicago Consortium, and Takako Nomi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at St. Louis University, discuss key findings of the report and their implications for policy and practice.